Marlon "Chito" Vera vs. Dominick "The Dominator" Cruz Article

Fight Analysis Write Up + Prediction

The main event features a bantamweight fight between two veteran strikers with very different approaches in fighting technique. Dominick “The Dominator Cruz” a former UFC bantamweight champion who is considered by most as one of, if not the greatest 135lb fighter of all time. On the opposition, Marlon “Chito” Vera the current #5 ranked fighter in the division. In terms of fighter style, Dominick Cruz has one of the most unique styles the sport has ever seen. Cruz's primary goal when entering the sport was longevity. He wanted to find a way to protect himself as much as possible, and he certainly succeeded in doing that. If you asked most coaches what you are not supposed to do in fighting, they would describe Dominick’s style and approach. Cruz does a number of things that most would not approve of: enter the striking range with your head first, keeping your hands extremely low, squaring your feet and dipping your head to the right and left. As hard as it is to believe, these tendencies were responsible for the success of Dominick Cruz’s career. After perfecting this style, “The Dominator” was untouchable in his prime, fighters would struggle vastly trying to land a clean shot or even make contact with him. At one moment, Cruz would land a clean punch on you and then a moment after he would already be out of range. His opponents would find this extremely frustrating because he would hit them but they would be unable to strike back due to his quickness as well as his impeccable footwork and head movement. Even after sustaining a number of detrimental injuries outside of the octagon resulting in inactivity for years on end, Dominick came back to what looked as if he didn’t lose a single step. Because of Cruz’s footwork and ability to land and not get hit mixed with takedown + wrestling ability, he was the perfect decision fighter. Dominick Cruz does not need to finish you to find success, he takes an extremely tactical approach choosing to beat you with accuracy, volume, and control time rather than power. As the saying goes “it takes two to tango” and Marlon “Chito” Vera is an excellent partner to dance with Dominick Cruz. Unlike Cruz, Vera’s goal in the cage is to hurt you and cause as much damage to you as possible. In Chito’s most recent bout vs a high-volume striker named Rob Font, Font threw almost double the strikes and landed over 100 more strikes. But when the 25-minute fight concluded Rob Font looked as if he had just got hit by a bus while Marlon looked as if he just finished up some light sparring. There was no better fight to showcase who Chito is as a fighter. When it seemed like Rob was getting ahead Chito would land one of his famous head kicks, knocking Font down and stealing the round. Dissimilar to Dominick, Marlon does not mind getting hit because he knows his opponent will be more affected by his counter strike. Chito will try to damage you in a multitude of ways. Whether he is at range and throws one of his patented body, leg, or high kicks or when the fight is in the clinch, and he lands vicious knees or elbows. On the mat, you can make the argument he is just as dangerous. Chito Vera is a BJJ black belt with a number of different types of submissions under his belt. Not to mention he has great top control with solid ground and pound. To compliment his impressive striking and ground talents, Chito has phenomenal cardio and an iron chin. 27 fighters have tried and not a single one has been able to finish Marlon during the fights. Now that I’ve covered both fighters, I’m going to discuss how I see this fight playing out, the paths to victory for each fighter, and conclude it with my prediction. It is no surprise here that Dominick Cruz’s most likely path to victory is to win by decision. Chito has never been finished and I can’t see Dominick resulting any different. It is extremely unlikely that Dominick wins because he is able to knock Vera out or submit him, which is even more improbable. Cruz is most likely to get his hand raised because of his volume and output, landing more strikes than his opponent but more importantly the ability to avoid taking damage to decide a round. Between Dominick’s style to make his opponents miss, keeping himself out of trouble mixed with top control time from takedowns if the fight goes to mat, and if Cruz is able to land without getting counterstruck on the way out, he will reign victories. As for Marlon Vera, his paths to victory are obviously different. I can see Marlon winning in every aspect whether that's by finish or decision, some ways are just more likely than others. Although it is a possibility, I don’t see Chito being able to submit Cruz. I expect both fighters to keep the fight standing where they will use their striking ability to get their hands raised. I also think Vera has good enough takedown defense to not end up on his back. Because of this, we may not even see the fighters go to the ground. But in the event the fight does go to the mat, I think Dominick is too experienced to get caught with one of Marlon’s submissions. If Marlon wins by decision, it will be because he lands the more impactful strikes throughout the rounds or even knocks Dominick down. Lastly, his most likely path to victory in my opinion is for Chito to win by (T)KO where he hurts his opponent whether that is by a kick, with hands, or even in the clinch with elbows and knees. To negate Dominick Cruz’s footwork, Marlon will need to start with leg kicks. Since the head is the hardest part of the body to hit, especially Cruz’s, Chito should look to throw kicks around the sides, which is the best way to trap someone who moves like Dominick. Beyond that, it would be in Marlon’s benefit to work his strikes from the ground up starting with low kicks, then body kicks, and then lastly, the head. The head opens up and falls more when working the body of your opponent. However, this won’t be an easy task, Dominick Cruz is one of the hardest puzzles to solve in the sport many have tried and only a few have succeeded. The path to victory for “The Dominator” will become more likely if he is able to make Chito miss, and if this can result in Vera getting frustrated moving forward in his attack, it could fall into the hands of Dominick. The fight gets easier for Dom when his opponents try to close the distance, this is because when someone is more eager to hit him, they miss more. This fight will definitely be a chess match of different styles and intentions from two talented fighters. As for a prediction, I believe Chito Vera will get his hand raised I see his power and speed being too much for Dominick Cruz to handle. Vera is the younger, bigger, and stronger fighter who is in his prime years of fighting. This fight may have been more evenly matched if this was the old Dominick Cruz. I think that time will have finally caught up with him this bout resulting in defeat. For my prediction, I see Chito getting the job done inside the distance by KO. Given that this is a 25-minute fight, I find it likely in that time Vera is able to finish Cruz inside the distance. Dom has to be perfect for 25 minutes in order to win and I don’t see it happening at this stage in his career.